HOMEFRONT: THE REVOLUTION (XONE)

'Cursed' is the perfect way to describe the Homefront IP. After a disastrous pre-marketing campaign, tepid reviews and poor sales, THQ’s Homefront failed to become a success and was a key part in the publisher’s downfall. Crytek then bought the IP, and Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical) set to work on an open-world sequel. But after a financial decline struck Crytek, they sold the poisonous IP to Deep Silver and shuttered Crytek UK, moving to Dambuster Studios to complete the arduously painful development of Homefront: The Revolution. It shows in every facet of this mediocre game.​From the get go, Homefront: The Revolution comes off as unremarkable. The story certain attempts to mimic the gritty and hopeless feel of its predecessor, and the dilapidated world of Philadelphia is unique. But, every character is painfully bland. The story is predictable and the twists are obvious. And the story clashes with the gameplay, as morally ambiguous decisions clash with the one-man army approach to sandbox design. It just never becomes compelling, even by the middling standards set by a lot of sandbox shooters.

You can almost smell the Tuborg

Part of the annual 'Name the FPS from the screenshot' tombola

In fact, H:TR will seem immediately familiar if you’ve played Far Cry. The sprawling city of Philly is divided into several sub-sections, each currently under siege by the KPA. You free up areas by completing Strikes, including hacking towers, clearing strongholds with stealth or shooting and collecting intel. As areas become liberated, you earn safe areas to restock ammo and sell valuables for cash. It might be unfair to penalize a game for being similar – especially as many games borrow from one another – but even the way you heal yourself by injecting yourself with a syringe feel eerily similar to Ubisoft’s series. And as mentioned, it feels wholly distant from the story.

That’s a shame, because shooting in H:TR actually feels okay. You gain around five weapons, including an assault rifle and shotgun. However, each gun comes with customisable parts, allowing you to change your assault rifle into an LMG, to name one example. You can also change attachments such as scopes, add on under-barrel sights and more. You can also use a handful of throwable items, such as molotovs and grenades, all of which can be crafted using special parts. It feels like a naturally fitting system, as you scavenge parts to create weapons and fit your makeshift gun together while you wipe dirt out your eyes.​But while the decent shooting can overcome a lacklustre design, it cannot break through a series of unacceptable technical issues. Gunfights often drop to single-digit frame rates, making what should be epic showdowns become slideshow nightmares. The game crashed on me several times, and the load times can sometimes last up to three minutes, which is particularly aggravating if you die during a story mission which forces a load. The lack of polish is apparent throughout, including fluctuating dialogue volume, jittering animations and buggy quests which sometimes fail to load until you restart a checkpoint – and wait three minutes. Considering how long it’s been in development, the lack of polish here is shocking.

Charitably stepping in to stop this chap from sneezing

Where's Wally? You'll never find him with that wallpaper

With a laundry list of icons on your map, you could possibly spend thirty-plus hours trying to complete everything, though as many of the tasks feel menial, it eventually becomes a bore. You can work on upgrading your weapons and equipment, though you end up having far more upgrade points than upgrades available. Outside of story, there is also a four-player co-op mode, where you build a resistance fighter and level them up by completing any of the dozen or so missions. These vary from escort to assault. It’s actually not too bad, feeling more like a series of guerrilla missions that chip away at a totalitarian regime.

Though the world of H:TR feels pretty large, it’s crafted with a lack of care. Rather than a seamless sandbox, moving between areas requires a load, and often none of the environments feel detailed or particularly attractive. They do capture the feeling of a worn-down society, but often suffer from texture pop-in. Characters look okay but animate poorly, cut-scenes lack any sense of flair, and the audio is completely mediocre. There’s not a single voice, soundtrack song or sound effect which really stands out, merely opting to be serviceable.​Homefront: The Revolution could have been something special. The setting is genuinely cool, and sometimes when everything lines up, it captures the feeling of being a resistance fighter. But too often it is buried under mediocre gameplay, lacklustre design, a boatload of technical woes and poor production. While customising your weapons is kind of cool, and fans of Free Radical’s TimeSplitters will find a nice Easter egg towards the end of the game, most will be better off skipping this one until it receives a significant price cut.

In a nutshell...

"Considering how long it’s been in development, the lack of polish here is shocking...The setting is genuinely cool, but too often it is buried under mediocre gameplay, lacklustre design, a boatload of technical woes and poor production"